My cup is over flowing! (Part 2)

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
[ Winston Churchill ]

In part one I talked about how I managed to get myself out of a particularly bad period of malaise. So what’s next, how on earth do you maintain such a high level of momentum?

The last year has been intense, no it’s redefined the word intense as far as my dictionary is concerned. The very thought of continuing at this pace scares the bejeezus out of me but in a mad kind of way that seems to motivate me even more. Just like putting nuts out for the birds, you know damn well no matter how many you put out they will be nicked by squirrels as soon as you turn your back. Hmm did I really just compare myself to squirrels stealing nuts? I’m going to have to work on this analogy thing as I clearly haven’t got it quite right yet. There is something else about squirrels though, they don’t give up no matter what obstacles you put between them and the nuts. In fact now I come to think of it squirrels are pretty cool, they taste nice too. Whoa, hold it… No they are vermin unless they are red, only then do they become cool, and tasty.

In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.
[ Albert Einstein ]

I have this sneaking suspicion that the company I work for are about to provide the answer to my searching questions. Opportunities are often come along when there are re-shuffles and a little voice at the back of my mind is telling me there’s one just round the corner. I would go on about my astounding ability to tell the future but as with many industries re-shuffles are an annual treat or more frequent if you are lucky. Many people see then as a threat, in fact if you read part one of this article then I refer you to the comfy slippers paragraph. Personally the unknown is always scary but damn life would be dull without it just like most Hollywood films, Deception being a good example I reviewed recently.

I remember a shuffle back when my malaise was in full force. There were two of us doing similar roles, both wearing our comfy slippers and puffing away on our pipes and one of us had to go. The funny thing was both of us wanted the redundancy package and were making ourselves appear equally incompetent, what a sorry pair we must have made. Suffice to say he got let go and walked away with a wheelbarrow full of cash. Ah no matter it worked out well for me as well in the end, a transfer to a fantastic new team and loads of opportunities came my way instead so we both ended up winners.

You know, I can’t imagine being in that place again now I have my new positive mental attitude. Stop laughing, it really works. Just suck in all those bad vibes and blow out good ones, happy and light is the order of the day, it’s how other people will see you and it will rub off on those with a happiness shortage. I always knew this at the back of my mind I think but when I read about how it could have dramatic influences on how you perceive your own day and how other people perceive you I decided to put it into practice big time. The book was “Today Matters” by John C. Maxwell and I would heartily recommend it. Some of the ideas are a bit out there but many of the underlying principles would prove a good foundation for anyone wanting to improve their own situation and help others do the same.

Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it’s not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. it’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.
[ Barack Obama ]

But I digress, so back to opportunity knocks. There are two rules to the opportunity game, one is that in order to win you have to recognise all the opportunities that pass by, the other is you have to be able to pick the right one. There you go, nice and simple… OK maybe not. Just spotting the opportunities as they whiz by on the escalator of life is a challenge as hindsight repeatedly reminds us. It becomes even harder if you let your vision be clouded by worry or anger over trivialities or situations, stay happy and focused and those terrible things really can transform into opportunities. The second part is completely out there, what is the right choice?! Well that’s going to be down to what you want and where you want to end up but hindsight will help you see the error of your ways if you let it. I would recommend you don’t succumb to the choices/hindsight trap, you will only ever become unhappy. As far as your choice is concerned it will always be the right choice no matter what, just remember hindsight is a liar and you will be fine and happy. Its choice itself that is the enemy trying at every turn to blast our happiness to ashes.

So my intention is to get out there and not just do what has been asked, to go and do some surprising things that will make people sit up and take notice and not to ever be put off by failure or put downs. After all if we never fail then how can we see and enjoy our successes. Opportunities are what you make of them and I intend to make them all mine muuuuahahahahaha!